Bounty Hounds

Spiffy:

Iffy:

May be too repetitive; draw-in horizon very close.

The Dynasty Warriors formula is simple: There are hordes of enemies and you slice them down with weapons. That's cool and all, but do you know what it lacks? Lasers. Big f'ing guns. You know... pyrotechnics. That's just an unavoidable drawback of being set in feudal China. Sorry, Koei! Namco Bandai's upcoming Bounty Hounds, however, suffers from no such shortage of futuristic munitions. The designers at new Taiwanese developer XPEC have cleverly avoided this pitfall by setting Bounty Hounds in the 24th century. So not only will it have a laser or two amongst its 500 or so weapons, it'll probably have a few high-tech gadgets we haven't even imagined. All the better to take down those ravenous hordes of Chinese alien warriors.

As for the story behind the carnage, Bounty Hounds is set during a time of great expansion. Mankind has reached the stars, and is seeking out distant worlds to terraform and colonize. Unsurprisingly, this raises the ire of more than a few extraterrestrial intelligences, or ETIs. After all, who'd want a bunch of evolved monkeys arriving from space to mess with your lovely ammonia and sulfur atmosphere? Thus, mankind creates a force of no-good mercenaries called the Bounty Hounds. You play their leader, Maximillian, and get to pave the way for your species' expansionist policies. Of course, a little intrigue happens along the way, with a conspiracy here, a backstabbing there... heck, the 24th century doesn't sound terribly different from the 21st. Except for those lasers, of course.

Bug Dodgers of the 24th Century

Bounty Hounds feels like a mix of Dynasty Warriors and Phantasy Star Online, with maybe a bit of Hellgate: London's run-down grunginess thrown in for some color. Unlike PSO, Bounty Hounds is primarily a single-player adventure, with Maximillian taking on a series of planetary raids with the help of a rotating cast of his fellow hounds. A space-based city serves as the game's hub, which Max can return to at any time to sell off loot, upgrade his equipment, and converse with his fellow scoundrels.

As in Dynasty Warriors and PSO, the heart of the game is hack 'n slash action versus dozens upon dozens of foes. Max can wield both melee and long-range weapons (though the fog line is close enough that "long-range" is a bit of a misnomer). As mentioned, he's got over 500 of 'em to discover, and most of these will be found as drops off of dead monsters. Max can equip up to four weapons at once. The Square and Circle buttons are assigned to his left and right hands, and a quick toggle will bring the two backup guns to the fore. Max can also pop out an energy shield to either absorb a few hits or power-up his next attack, the specific results of which vary by weapon. Finally, he can perform a quick dodge by hitting the shield button just as he's about to attack, giving you the chance to get right in the enemies' junk, should that be your style. As you'd hope, the action is fast and smooth, and the enemies just keep on coming.

One other interesting gameplay bit is the field system, which lets Max place circular fields which have various effects out on the battlefield. Fields deplete a special meter that's essentially the 24th century equivalent of mana. There's a huge variety of fields to earn, and any field can be enhanced further by pumping some skill points into it upon level-up. The effects are many and varied; one good one seems to freeze enemies in their tracks, while another simply weakens their blows. What's more, you can set multiple fields at once, and overlapping fields create different effects. These could be bad as well as good, so some experimentation and planning will be required.